An apparatus for producing perforated nonwovens by means of hydrodynamic needle punching is known from EP 1 001 064 [U.S. Pat. No. 6,324,738], the perforations being formed as substantially sharply defined pores of any dimension in the nonwoven. This apparatus is comprised of a smooth continuous surface carrying and transporting the nonwoven, having drainage holes for transporting away the sprayed on fluid by means of a water bar having multiple discharge nozzles at high pressure, and further having three-dimensional bumps raised from the plane of the smooth surface for producing the perforations in the nonwoven. For this purpose the bumps are nonuniformly distributed across the continuous surface, so they fall at random on the surface of the nonwoven. However, such a system cannot be utilized for embossing patterns, such as animal or plant images, or other geometrically defined shapes in the nonwoven.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,115,544 only shows a method whereby the patterns are pressed into the nonwoven by means of bumps. The bumps, however, are not intended to form the imprint in the nonwoven in the object according to the application, but instead merely surround the pattern to be formed on the foraminous drum.
Furthermore, a method for producing a nonwoven substance is known (DE69224769) [U.S. Pat. No. 5,274,893], where a carrier web (5) is utilized, on whose pattern side a plurality of projections (6, 6′) are provided. The projections (6, 6′) are of large and small sizes. They are made of thermoplastic resin, and are welded onto the pattern side of the web. A quantity of fiber (2) is deposited onto this web (5), which has irregular patterns formed by the projections (6, 6′). Water or hot air is applied under high pressure to the layer of fibers in order to compress them and to felt the fibers. Subsequently, the fibers (2) are pressed onto the projections in order to form patterns in the nonwoven in this manner.